Box jumps have to be one of the most misunderstood exercises out there. This article is in response to seeing a lot of box jumps on social media that simply defeat the purpose of the exercise, yet people are in awe of these videos that they see. So if we first look at how a box jump should be performed, and what it is good for, then consider what box jumps are not, by the end of the article you should have a pretty good idea of how to correctly include this exercise in your training routine.

How to Perform a Box Jump Correctly

A box jump should be performed with a soft foam box in order to maximise the reduction in eccentric stress upon landing. After all, the purpose of the raised box is to reduce eccentric stress (a box jump entails less compressive stress than landing from a vertical jump and less shear stress and compressive stress at the knee compared to a broad jump) so why would you use a hard box for this?[1] Box jumps can therefore be particularly good in lower limb rehab scenarios where the player is not yet ready to be exposed to the full eccentric demands of landing on the ground (think 8-10x ground contact forces upon each landing).

When it comes to box jumps, hip displacement (i.e. how high your hips travel) is key. If you look at the photos above, you will see that the athlete’s hips reach the same height during his flight for both the 75cm box jump and the 105cm box jump – i.e. he has jumped the same height, the only difference is the amount of knee flexion upon landing. Yet telling someone you do box jumps with a 75cm (30 inches) box sounds nowhere near as impressive as telling them you do it with a 105cm (41 inches) box does it?

The difference in the two jumps is about the amount of hip flexibility required in order for the athlete’s feet to land 30cm higher for the higher box. Extremely high box jumps are almost always the product of a pretty good jump and fantastic hip mobility rather than pure explosive power [2]. As a general rule of thumb you never want to land on a box which requires you to land with more than 135 degrees of knee flexion due to increased risk of knee and spine injury and if you are required to land with more than 90 degrees of knee flexion then the box is already too high [2].

So what happens when you start landing on a 30 inch box with less than 90 degrees of knee flexion? You simply jump higher and land softly (improved landing mechanics) – the training adaptation is still the same. The only good exception to this rule that I have come across is the similarities between the deep catch position required in the clean and a very high box jump [3]. Yet this is with a very niche population – for the vast majority of us using box jumps to improve athletic performance this is not relevant.

How Not to Perform a Box Jump

So if that is what box jumps are and how they should be implemented, then what are they not?

Box Jumps are Not Plyometrics

Dr Yessis contends that ‘plyometrics is the most misused term in our vocabulary’ [4]. When it comes to the world of strength and conditioning, it’s hard to disagree.

A true plyometric makes use of Dr Verkoshansky’s principle of ‘The Shock Method’, that is, a ‘sharp, compulsory muscular tension, initiated by the body’s impact (collision – e.g. ground reaction forces) with an external object’ [5]. Specifically, this was used to refer to the training exercise he created in the 1960s called the Depth Jump, arguably the most revolutionary exercise of the 20th century [6].

A true plyometric exercise, one which makes use of ‘The Shock Method’, is thus very different to simply a jumping exercise. It is used to develop true explosive power, and thus can only be performed for up to approximately 10 jumps per session – not multiple sets of 10 jumps. Unfortunately, however, nowadays all kinds of jumping exercises are referred to as plyometrics.

Put simply – a box jump is a jumping exercise, not a plyometric exercise – it lacks the ‘shock’ required to be a true plyometric.

Box Jumps are Not a Conditioning Tool

Secondly, box jumps are not a conditioning tool. If, as discussed above, the purpose of using box jumps is to reduce eccentric stress, why perform multiple reps on a hard box therefore accumulating a significant amount of joint stress?

Additionally, landing mechanics start to falter under fatigue causing the risk of injury to significantly increase, not to mention the ingraining of poor landing mechanics. You want to practice how you perform – practise poorly, perform poorly. Of course, the caveat to this is their use in Crossfit – but even then I would argue that just because you have to express a certain ability in competition, does not mean you develop that ability in the same way.

Conclusion

In conclusion, box jumps can be an excellent tool if used correctly. They should be performed on soft foam boxes in order to maximise the reduction in eccentric stress upon landing. Hip displacement is the key performance indicator for box jumps, not the height of the box that the athlete lands on. It must also be remembered that box jumps are not a plyometric exercise nor should they be used as a conditioning tool.

Welcome to the third and final instalment in our series on the contentious topic, ‘how young is ‘too young’ to start training’. In parts 1 and 2, we dispelled the myth that youth athletes under the age of 18 shouldn’t partake in strength and conditioning, and considered some of the key components that must be included in a youth strength and conditioning programme in order for it to be appropriate and effective. In part 3 we discuss why individualisation is so important in youth strength and conditioning and provide some practical examples of this. If you missed either part 1 or part 2 then click here to read them.

One-Size-Fits-All Gym Class

How many times have you gone into a gym and seen a class that is run with a one-size-fits-all approach?

Whilst some classes do try to differentiate within the group to cater for different ages and abilities, for the vast majority this isn’t the case…nor is it feasible in a large group with just one coach.

This is why it is crucial that youth strength and conditioning is conducted with smaller athlete to coach ratios in order to optimise youth development by being able to:

Differentiate between athletes

Ensure the emphasis is on correct technique (bigger groups result in less coach contact time per athlete meaning poor technique may slip through the net)

Issues with Chronological Age

Everyone remembers the guy at school who was a foot taller than everybody else his age and had a beard two years before anyone else? Safe to say, children all mature at different rates.

Due to the processes of growth (change in body composition or body size) and maturation (the variable timing and tempo of progressive change in the body from childhood to adulthood), it is not particularly accurate to define a stage of maturation or development by a child’s chronological age (their age in years and months) [1, 2]. Indeed, paediatric data shows that physical performance in youth athletes progresses in a nonlinear fashion due to the influence of growth and maturation [3].

In this second part of our 3 part series on the age at which it is appropriate for youths to start strength and conditioning, we are going to take a closer look at how a youth strength and conditioning programme should look. If you missed part 1, which showed that youth resistance training is in no way dangerous if conducted in a safe and controlled environment, then click here to read it.

Youth Lifting

Many who think that youth athletes should not undertake strength and conditioning training are also the same people that think that strength and conditioning is all about big lifting and heavy weight.

Regardless of age, and especially in youth strength and conditioning, this is, quite simply, not the case. Let’s take a closer look at why this is not the case…

Importance of Fundamental Movement Skills

Youth strength and conditioning is centred round key movement competencies. Fundamental movement skills are the building blocks for more advanced, ‘sport-specific’ movement patterns. No matter the length of time that a youth has undertaken formalised strength and conditioning, motor skill development should form a crucial part of their training programme [1].

For example, can a child stand on one leg with their eyes closed? Although on the face of it, being able to stand on one leg with your eyes closed may sound somewhat trivial, single leg stability forms a crucial aspect of any sport in which running is required – the better you are at controlling your bodyweight on one leg, the better you will be at absorbing force at speed (stabilising) on one leg thus meaning you can run faster as less time is spent with your foot on the ground absorbing these high forces (ground contact time).

The age at which it is appropriate for youth athletes (people under the age of 18) to participate in strength and conditioning training has long been a debated topic. The purpose of this article is to show that, conducted in the right environment, youth athlete strength and conditioning is perfectly safe and reduces sports-related injuries. So what are the facts?

Benefits of Resistance Training

It seems that for many parents the prevailing view is that youths should not undertake resistance training as doing so may harm their physical development. Yet it’s unlikely that many of these same parents would think twice about letting their son or daughter play on a climbing frame (such as monkey bars, pulling themselves up, or jumping off onto the ground) in the local park even though this is still resistance based, just with the child’s bodyweight as the resistance.

Support of Strength and Conditioning National Bodies

In recent years, many national strength and conditioning bodies have issued updated position statements on the topic of youth strength and conditioning [1][2]. More and more research is concluding that it is perfectly safe for youths to undertake strength and conditioning as long as it is appropriately prescribed and supervised [2].

It is not the undertaking of strength and conditioning training that is in itself dangerous; rather, it is the fact that youth athletes, left unsupervised, adopt poor training modalities with unsafe technique and dangerous loads, leading to injuries. It is therefore imperative that this training is part of an appropriately structured training programme conducted in a safe environment [3].

Justin Thomas was the stand-out golfer of the 2017 season: he won 4 tournaments, including his first major with the PGA Championship. He’s carried this form into 2018, winning the Honda Classic in February.

What lays behind this recent success? A complete overhaul of the golf specific strength and conditioning work he was doing.

As Thomas said in a recent interview,

‘I wasn’t always someone who loved working out, but now, it’s a major part of my life. It’s important for my body to feel how it needs to feel to play the best I can. It’s something I take very seriously. I probably put on a good 15-20lbs last year.’

Adding 2 to 3 stone in weight has certainly transferred over to Thomas’ golf game. Despite still weighing only 145lbs (65kg) he is placed 8th in the PGA stats for the 2018 season with a driving distance average of 312.5 yards.

In his own words ‘pound for pound, my swing is the most powerful on Tour’. The confidence this must give him when he stands on the tee of any hole is something that, although tough to quantify, will surely put him at an advantage over his opponents.

How many club golfers weigh considerably more than Thomas yet hit the ball nowhere near as far?

Admittedly, technical proficiency plays a huge role in this.

Yet, Thomas has managed to considerably increase his driving distance at a stage in his career when he is already highly proficient at the technical aspects of the game.

How did he manage this?…

Well, power is the product of force and velocity. Improving either of these aspects (force or velocity) can lead to increased power production and explosiveness of an athlete. By gaining muscle mass, Thomas made it considerably easier for himself to apply more force thus improving this half of the equation.

However, if Thomas only focused on increasing his force production through maximal strength training what may have happened would have been a reduction in the contractile velocity of his muscles. Obviously, in a movement as fast as a golf swing this would be disastrous. It was therefore imperative for him to undertake strength and power training in order to utilise the extra force at his disposal.

With the golfers we work with on the Rigs Performance Athlete Development Programme, we make sure that all strength and conditioning support we give ensures that any extra strength we obtain is translated immediately into the golf swing. Through completing an individualised Corrective Exercise Programme alongside this, we also ensure that the golfers remain flexible enough to hit golf balls day in day out.

As golfers are fast becoming as strong and powerful as they are skilful, it seems fitting to remember a quote from the man who changed the game, Tiger Woods:

‘Golf is a sport, so you have to train like an athlete’

If you are a golfer and interested in training like an athlete, get in touch with Rigs Head of Performance, Josh Bridgeman today. Visit our website here; http://www.rigsfitness.co.uk/rigs-fitness-strength-and-conditioning-birmingham-performance/ or send Josh an email to josh@rigsfitness.co.uk